Bedtime Stories for a Blood Thirsty Lieutenant
by Liralen Li
Summary: A collection of short bedtime stories with a single Bleach character per chapter/installment. So far it's Renji, Ukitake, and Hanatarou. Originally for the Blood Thirsty Lieutenant on Y!Gallery. Rated for language.
1. Renji and the Kitten

**Author's Note**

_This is the first of a series of related short stories. This one has a bit of IM, because I really do believe the dialog adds something to the story itself, but the majority of this is in straight story format. The others do not have any IM in them, and smooth out with telling. This 'story' will have a single story per chapter/document, and I'll add on as I have more requests and inspiration for bedtime stories. The intent is to keep this appropriate for telling a shinigami before bedtime. _

_Prompts given in reviews will be considered for future installments of this story. _

* * *

bloodthLt: (pets) could you tell me a story?  
Li: about?  
bloodthLt: hmmm (snuggles) a nice bed time story, maybe with some water in it.  
Li: puts aside the one of hakkai crying, shunsui dreaming of fire, toshiro saving his neighborhood from a fire, ukitake and the little frog... hm...  
bloodthLt: oooh two of them sound very interesting to me, but I totally fear fire.  
Li: contemplates renji and the kitten, no water, Shuuhei and the wolf, no no... hm...  
bloodthLt: ooooh a kitten?  
bloodthLt: i like kittens  
Li: But there's no water?  
Li: Is that okay?  
bloodthLt: okay

Li: Renji was practicing with Ikkaku out in the cliffs one day. They were beating the tar out of each other and enjoying it.

It's sunny. A nice day for a good, hard fight, and the two intend to make the most of it, as Ikkaku can't get out that often, now that he's a Third Seat and Renji's taking on more responsibilities with the 11th. They battle, take water breaks, and seal up the longer, more bothersome cuts during the breaks...

And then Renji hears the tiny cry of a kitten.

bloodthLt: ooooh what happens?

Li: He looks around and can't seem to find it, and Ikkaku looks at him like he's crazy. "Whatcha lookin' for, man?"

"A kitten... I think. Dumbass, help me find it," Renji said, grumpily, as he hears the weak little mew again.

Ikkaku shrugs, "I don't hear anything, Pineapple. You find it."

"Okay, I will." Renji stalks into the high columns of the cliffs around their practice area and hears Ikkaku laugh and then go back towards their division.

bloodthLt: go ikkaku  
Li: hee.  
bloodthLt: is renji going to save the little kitty?  
Li: of course.  
Li: its renji.  
bloodthLt: yay!  
Li: he wouldn't let a stray be lost forever.  
Li: he's one himself.  
bloodthLt: yep yep

Renji casts through the columns, frowning until he hears another soft "mew". Oddly enough it's coming from higher up. He wanders about until he finally can hear where the sound is coming from.

There's a little tiny cave about twice as high as he is, above his head, in one of the stone columns he sees a flash of green eyes.

It's a hell of a struggle for poor Renji to climb that column, but climb it he does. He scrapes knuckles and knees, toes and the shoulder that Ikakku had cut open earlier, leaving a smear of blood on the stone. But up it he goes and when he gets to the top he finds a tiny kitten, half-starved and so thirsty it licks Renji's hands for the blood on them.

However, it's not quite a tame kitten, and it leaves claw marks on those same hands when he picks it up. And, having no where else to put it, Renji sticks it in the top of his gi, so that he'll have both hands free to climb down.

The little beast, scared at first, digs its claws into Renji's skin and the gi. Renji, used to the sword slashes Ikakku raises, doesn't think anything much of those scratches, and so he just climbs back down.

By the time he's down, the kitten is licking the sweat off Renji, just for the water's sake, and it tickles him a little, but being Renji he doesn't let that bother him either. Instead, he feeds it water from his bamboo water bottle until it won't drink anymore. Then he tries to set it free.

It won't go. The kitten won't leave Renji, even when Renji make scary noises at it, and shoo's it off. And it's black and skinny and reminds him too much of Rukia, so he really can't just chase it off completely. Finally, it ends up back on him, in his gi.

Renji wanders back to the 11th, terrified that the other guys are going to see him, Renji, with a kitten.

But who should find him and the little furry thing first? You guessed it! Zaraki Kenpachi!

The Captain frowns at Renji and Renji tries to hide his trembling. The Captain pokes a finger at the kitten, "What's that?"

The kitten sinks all four sets of claws and its teeth into Kenpachi's hand. Renji's eyes get all big as he expects all his hard work to come to nothing.

Kenpachi laughs and laughs. "Ha! Little bugger's perfect for us. Good find, Abarai. Looks like the 11th has a mascot."

Vice-captain Yachiru peeks over Kenpachi's shoulder, "Cute!! Yeah, Ken-chan, let's keep him!" And that pretty much sealed the deal, as none of the guys were going to cross Yachiru.

And that is how Renji found the kitten mascot for the 11th.


	2. Ukitake And The Little Frog

**Author's Note**

_If folks give me a Bleach character and some thing they want with the character in a review, I'll do my best to write another little story. The goal of these is that they're all small, all fairytale-like, and have Bleach characters in them._

_The original request for this one was from the other story... "Jyuushiro and the little frog", and there was some additional wish for Shunsui and some water, too. _

_Sorry... I didn't get Shunsui into it... whenever I tried to get him into it, it turned into the wrong kind of bedtime story... ahem.  
_

* * *

Once upon a time, Ukitake Jyuushiro was relaxing in the garden.

This was back when he very young, and still very unhappy with the fact that he was ill and that everyone thought him weak and ineffective because of it. He didn't like people looking at him and his coughing and thinking that he couldn't do what was needed to be done.

But he couldn't worry about that ALL the time.

So Jyuushiro was relaxing, and he saw a little frog on a lotus leaf, sitting outside and enjoying the sun. It was a beautiful, bright little frog, as bright green as the idea of spring, with eyes as red as a coal's heart.

It didn't really look very strong and it was quite small.

It snapped at and ate insects so small that Jyuushiro couldn't quite see what, exactly it was eating. He, like I, hoped that it was eating mosquitoes because no one likes mosquitoes.

Then out of the woods came a fox. A slit-eyed, bushy tailed fox with a button black nose, and neat white feet. And that fox saw the little frog.

And before Jyuushiro could jump up and scare the fox away, it pounced for the little green frog.

The little frog dodged, handily, the bigger mammal, and plopped into the pond. The fox dove into the water, over and over again, after the fast swimming, quick leaping frog, until the fox was soaked through with water.

Then, to Jyuushiro's horror, the frog leaped up out of the water and through the air. In that instant's mistake the fox snapped the frog out of the air with narrow cruel red jaws.

Just as suddenly, the fox recoiled, and spat the jewel bright little frog back out. The fox's tongue lolled limp, soon foaming with drool. The fox desperately opened its mouth into the stream and shook its red head under the water, and finally, it staggered away.

The poisonous, bright green little frog settled back on its leaf in the sunshine, and enjoyed the rest of its day in peace.

And Jyuushiro took to heart the lesson that just because one looks small and weak, doesn't mean that one can't win against something much larger.


	3. Hanatarou's Surprise

One upon a time there was a little seventh seat in the Fourth Division who worked very, very hard as a drudge cleaning up the messes that other shinigami made all around the Gotei 13. He was a cute little guy and very, very nice and always polite to those about him.

He swept and washed and picked up and ran about with all the supplies and cleaning and laundry for the other Division and he never complained and mostly stopped to thank people when they surprised him by being kind of nice to him for his work.

Every once in a while he'd be surprised by a battle, and he'd get called into the Fourth Division's infirmary and he'd work on the injured to help clean them up and put them back into working order. Little Hanatarou was very, very good at healing people up and even his zanpakutou, which he couldn't always find, prefered healing people to cutting into them, though, really, it did both.

He wasn't that surprised when people bullied him, as he was small and skinny and not nearly as strong as the big guys in the 11th.

He was very surprised when the two ryoka, who had invaded Soul Society, were actually nice to him. So nice to him that he surprised himself and stood up for Rukia-sama when her stuck-up, beautiful, very noble, and powerful brother was going to just kill her himself on that bridge. He never quite forgot that he could surprise himself like that.

Even as he swept and cleaned, cooked and washed, Hanatarou thought.

Then had come the invitations to the battle at Karakura and Hueco Mundo, both prongs of the all-decisive war that Yamamoto was heading. No one was surprised when all the remaining Captains were invited and most of the Vice-Captains as well. Those that had done the earlier mission to Karakura were no surprise either. But what did surprise everyone was that Hanatarou got an invitation to the battles when nearly no other Seated personnel (well other than Yumichika and Ikkaku, but they were... well... them) were.

So he'd gone, and was terribly surprised to find that it was that same stuck-up, beautiful, very noble, and powerful Kuchiki-taichou that had requested him. He'd gone. And he'd had to watch that same Captain sacrifice his own limbs as he tried to get Rukia-sama away to safety, but then, under the control of those strange eyes that had attempted to control the Captain, she'd cut Hanatarou down.

That hurt.

Isane woke him up, and they'd patched up Rukia, but the Captain was no where to be found. Hanatarou went out into the endless fortress to find him, thinking that for all that Kuchiki-taichou was so powerful, he still had to find it hard going with three limbs dead. Little Hanatarou dodged Hollows, ducked behind rocks, and finally found the beautiful Captain, making his slow way towards the center of Las Noches.

He remembered facing Kuchiki-taichou on the bridge, and so he faced him in the unwavering dark. "Kuchiki-taichou, you must let me heal your wounds."

Those dark eyes looked into his own, they lidded closed for a moment, and then Byakuya nodded his consent. "As long as you do it speedily, Yamada Hanatarou."

Hanatarou drew Hisagomaru, and said, "Hisagomaru, fulfill!"

Byakuya's eyes went wide as the little Seventh Seat struck. Steel struck sparks on steel as Senbonzakura lept in the way so quickly Hanatarou hadn't even seen the blade move. Even the little Healer could see when Byakuya checked the impulse to just skewer what now seemed to be his opponent.

"What are you doing?"

"I'm sorry... I should have explained. Hisagomaru needs to strike your wounds in order to heal you. It will hurt like a sword wound, but my zanpakutou then will heal all the wounds it strikes. It's very fast," Hanatarou said, breathless.

"Yamada Hanatarou, I have drawn Senbonzakura. Do you honestly expect me to let you hit me in a contest of swords?" Kuchiki-taichou said, chillingly.

"But... but... it's not a contest, Kuchiki-taichou," Hanatarou squeaked. "I'm..."

"You are attempting to strike me, Yamada Hanatarou," Kuchiki-taichou said firmly. "If you wish to do so, you must _do _so."

Hanatarou looked into those dark eyes, pulled back that feeling he'd had on the bridge. Knowing the Captain might counterstrike, might kill him even without his other limbs, Hanatarou took all his courage in his hands. And Hanatarou swung his blade with his conviction that he could and would heal Kuchiki-taichou, drawn blade or not.

And that is how little Yamada Hanatarou got the surprise of his life, when he actually hit and healed the uselessly hanging arm of the stuck-up, beautiful, very noble, and powerful Kuchiki-taichou.

"Good. Very good," said the Captain, and then collapsed gracefully into Hanatarou's arms, unconscious, allowing the little Healer the opportunity to heal the rest of the man's wounds. And, ever after, Hanatarou remembered that he had gotten past the defenses of a real Gotei 13 Captain.

Magical or not, who knows? But the little shinigami got bullied rather less when it got bandied about that a certain little healer had actually beaten Kuchiki-taichou in a straight draw. Though, given that Hanatarou had never told a soul, he sometimes caught dark eyes watching him over the slightest of smiles, and he wondered.

* * *

**Author's Notes**

_This was done at the request of gunsandpocky on Y!Gallery, as part of the bedtime story series. I really kind of thought it was going to go Cinderella on me from the beginning, but then Kuchiki-taichou kind of gave me a look. He made up for it, though, with that swoon. And as someone has pointed out, indeed, Hanatarou had no chance in the end; but I like to think Byakuya's sense of humor saved the little guy when Hanatarou's resolve became obvious. Sometimes I wonder if Byakuya ever gets tired of the Kuchiki pride..._


	4. Urahara and the Trickster

Once upon a time there was a little boy named Urahara Kisuke and for all that he was the exact opposite of an orphan, because he'd died first, he was still on his own.

But he was clever and he did have a best friend, Tsukabishi Tessai. Tessai was a big kid whose eyes couldn't see very well, so he wore glasses. Folks thought he was stupid because he was big. But Kisuke knew his friend could see what others wouldn't look for. He also knew that Tessai felt unlike anyone else. Tessai said that Kisuke gave off a feeling like a bonfire. But it meant that the two kids needed food.

In their District was a man with a table, cups and a ball. If someone wagered food, he would shuffle the cups and offer to let them guess which cup the ball was under. If they got it right, he would give them as much as they wagered. Kisuke never had anything to wager, but he watched as the man would lose a few and then win, nearly without fail, when the stakes got much bigger.

One day, after the man had lost a few, he had gathered a fairly large crowd. Then a skinny ragged dirty girl with purple hair and golden eyes came up to the trickster's table.

She seemed like any other District 57 street kid, but Tessai's eyes went wide and Kisuke could feel it too. She felt like warm sleek shadows gleaming, smooth and powerful, laughing even when still.

She laid a neatly wrapped bundle on the table. She opened the banana leaf and there were three rice balls. The whole crowd ooooo'd.

"I'll wager one of these," she said. "Show me your game."

"Sure thing, little missy. You can win, win, win." The huckster caroled as he eyed the little girl, and brought a matching rice ball up on the table. He showed her the cups and the ball and then proceeded to shuffle the cups quickly.

The golden eyes followed the motions, as quietly as a snake watching a bird.

When the cups stopped, she simply pointed at one of them. She didn't hesitate at all, didn't even pretend to guess. The huckster's eyes narrowed, and when he lifted the cup, the ball was under it as plain as could be.

The market place crowd had formed a little audience around the two. Some cheered, a few jeered, and one just said, "Wait until they get up to all her food, then we'll see how good the game is."

Kisuke saw the golden eyes flicker towards the one that said that last.

The trickster smiled sweetly at the little girl. "Wanna just leave your wager on the table or double it? I'll pay twice as much if you guess right again!"

"How about I take my one and wager all four against four of yours?" She said, wide-eyed and innocent.

"Uhm..." The trickster shrugged. "Sure thing, missy. Why not?"

She nodded. He popped the ball under a cup. This time the shuffling was very fast indeed, and sometimes he moved multiple cups at a time. During a particularly showy switch, Tessai whispered softly to Kisuke, "He threw the ball into his lap."

Kisuke sighed. Now little Kisuke was not exactly a good boy. He was more than willing to cheat or steal to get what he or Tessai needed, and hadn't really thought it a bad thing that the trickster cheated to get his food. But this little girl felt like them, and Kisuke didn't like the idea of someone like himself getting cheated.

Besides, if she won four more rice balls, she might share them.

So when the cups stopped, little Kisuke stepped forward and shouted, "Wait, wait! Can I make this a little more fun? I'll pay you back, little miss, if I get this wrong." He turned to the crowd, arms wide. "Who here would agree that if I guessed _both_ the cups that didn't have the ball under it that it would be the same, but harder than if I'd tried to only guess the one with the ball?"

The little girl frowned at Kisuke for longer than he liked. But then she nodded, slowly.

The crowd ooo'ed and there were cheers and agreements. The trickster looked like he was going to try and kill Kisuke the next time he got a chance, but he managed to smile and nod. A single loss like this wouldn't kill him, but being shown for a cheat might. The whole crowd was getting into the idea.

"Okay, okay, then... I'll pick... this one."

The trickster raised the empty cup to applause.

"And that one." The second cup rose, and everyone cheered on finding it empty.

Kisuke took his bows and a tighter than comfortable handshake from the cups and ball man.

The little girl carefully rewrapped her rice balls. "Take those," she said to Kisuke when the trickster offered her the bundle with his four rice balls.

The three kids walked away from the table together. Tessai's head came up after five steps. He murmured, "There are six... bodyguards?"

She gave the bigger kid a grin, "Hey, you with him?" She nodded at Kisuke.

Tessai nodded. Kisuke swallowed, suddenly nervous. Bodyguards?

"You two are strong. Maybe bringing you in will make up for screwing up the arrest," she said, musingly.

"What?!" the two boys chorused.

"I was supposed to arrest him for cheating, but you messed that up. The Shihouin are always looking for talented kids and you fit. I think I'll keep you." She smiled at him.

And Kisuke realized then that tricksters don't always look the part.


	5. Shuuhei and the Wolf

_Author's Note: This one is for lj's bloodthirstylt for her birthday. She requested "Shuuhei and the Wolf" a long, long time ago and asked for it for her birthday. So here it is, unbeta'ed so all the mistakes are my own. _

* * *

Once upon a time there was a deep dark wood where there lived a Big Bad Hollow with lots of little Hollows by its side.

Now no one went into the woods, as everyone in Rukongai said, "There is a Big Bad Hollow that will wrap you up like a spider wraps a fly. It will then eat your heart, suck your marrows, and grind your bones for bread."

When the stories of the Big Bad Hollow reached him, Yamamoto-soutaichou would not stand for it to be there, so he gathered up his Captains, gathered up his Vice-Captains, and gathered up the rest of the Gotei 13.

He stood before them all and asked, "Who is shinigami enough to go cleanse a Big Bad Hollow?"

Hands shot up all over the place.

"It is in the 69th District of Rukongai," he added.

Many hands went down.

"It is in the Deep Dark Haunted Wood at the base of Black Mountain."

All the hands but two went down.

The hands left belonged to Komamura-taichou and Hisagi-taichou.

They looked at each other and nodded. The black-haired, scarred fukutaichou bowing lower to the giant wolf of a Captain.

"We will go, Genryuusai-soutaichou." Komamura-taichou said with a rumble.

"Take your Divisions with you," Yamamoto-soutaichou added, and both bowed low and left.

So the Captain and the Vice-Captain each took their own divisions with them. They were good men and women, shinigami from the Academy, who had been through the most rigorous training in Soul Society.

Most of Shuuhei's people were Rukongai-raised, street-smart and good at showing their colors when it kept others off their backs. The tattoos didn't hurt either. Komamura's folks bunched together uncertainly as they reached the less than safe areas of the slums of Rukongai.

Most of the streets quietly emptied as they approached. Occasionally there was the furtive glance from a quickly closed shutter, the child who hid behind a dumpster to watch them go by, and a woman who posed against a broken wall with heavy eyes. Shuuhei saw the flutter of laundry drying, a fall of dust from a concealing doorway, and a telltale glint from between the gaps in a fence.

He hand-signaled his Division. His men and women nodded, a few shunpo'ed to the roofs, others disappeared into dark alleys, comfortable with this kind of hunting.

He moved close to the Captain, and stood on tiptoe to reach Komamura's furry ear to whisper, "Ambush."

Komamura growled, so lowly Shuuhei could only feel the vibration of it through the shoulder he had used as a support.

The Seventh Division all looked up, and without even a signal, a few followed Shuuhei's folks into the darkness. A good number still followed the center track, with a more alert stance. The dozen or so that could moved to the edges and released their shikai.

The gangsters that jumped them had to be reiatsu-blind, or they'd have had enough warning to turn anyone with enough brains, thought Shuuhei. The flankers of Shuuhei's Division cut through their targets quickly, coming in from their outside position and using surprise to good advantage. The supposed easy marks proved anything but easy to those that threw the ambush.

It was a tough fight, and there were wounded. They had to be field dressed, and some of the able would have to go back with them as a guard back through the Districts. This was not a place they could stay to wait for the rest of the Division members to come back.

Shuuhei was overseeing the medics when his First came up to his shoulder and murmured, "You have to come see this, Hisagi-san."

He looked at her, and she looked gravely back. He glanced at Komamura and she gave a slight shake of the head. He sighed and inclined his head, and she paced off into one of the dark alleys. She opened a door, and seemed to stiffen a bit before she walked in.

The smell hit him like a blow when he crossed the threshold, and the low sounds of despair and anger made the hairs on the back of his neck stand up. There were cages lining the walls, and in the cages were what he first thought were dogs. Then, as he got closer, he saw that they were wolves, gaunt and panting, yellow eyes gleaming in the darkness. He snarled softly.

His First looked at him helplessly. "I don't know if they'll turn on each other if we let them go..."

"They won't," said a huge voice from the door. Komamura walked in, and most of the wolves in the cages crouched low at his presence. "I will not allow it."

Shuuhei nodded to his First and together, they unfastened all the cages. Most of the animals cringed to the backs, but then one of the bigger females, followed by one male, slunk out of their enclosure. With a single glance at Komamura, they slipped out the door and away. There was an impatient yip as they went, and soon the rest of the animals got their courage up, and left the building quietly.

Shuuhei sighed. "Sometimes I think humans are much worse than animals."

The wrinkle in Komamura's muzzle and lip might have been a smile.

They had no more trouble as they headed toward the forest at the edge of the city. The shadow of Black Mountain loomed in the distance, over a the dark forest and sunlit plains. A road wended its way up into the trees, and disappeared there. The forest began with a mere sprinkling of trees through grasses and brush, and gradually thickened. The sunlight dimmed with green and waned as the tress crowded closer and closer.

Shuuhei and his folks bunched together, while Komamura's Division spread out. Shuuhei didn't even see what it was that alerted Komamura, and suddenly the big Captain was by him, murmuring, "Hollow."

Shuuhei signaled his folks. This time they played the bait, and let Komamura's warriors slip into the gloom as quickly as water soaked into the ground.

They put the more powerful along the edges with their backup in the center, and when those with shikai released, the resulting hungry howl from the Hollows made the ambush moot. There was no surprise, just quick and relentless battle. The flankers waited until the right moment, when the Hollows were fully occupied with those in front of them before attacking. The Hollows were just normal Hollows, complete with bone masks and all kinds of shapes. The Divisions, used to facing such things cut through them like a hot knife through butter.

The Division members gathered up after the fight. More wounded had to be taken care of, field dressed, and set to stay in that part of the woods with a protective squad to await the return of any who made their way up Black Mountain.

"That was far too easy," Shuuhei said, reflectively, when all the Hollows had gone to dust.

"Mmmhmmm." Komamura agreed. His teeth were just barely showing under his black lips, his nose up in the air as his big ears swiveled to cup the air and hear better. "There's more. Further in."

Both of them turned toward the danger, shoulders squared, and they led their people further up the lower slopes.

The trees grew larger and larger, until they sprawled so hugely that one couldn't see the tops of them anymore. The greenery trapped water, the shade kept it cool, and soon there was an ever-falling mist of droplets that damped everything and everyone. Komamura's fur flattened to his skull, making the shape of his jaw and face harsh in the near twilight.

A sudden running burst of reiatsu and sound caused everyone to turn, and a line of Hollows appeared. There were dozens of them, smaller than the usual kind, they seemed to all be shaped like hopping spiders with chitinous masks of bone. As quickly as they appeared, a tone would sound and they disappeared again to reappear on the hapless Division members to leave a slash with white mandibles before disappearing again.

"Taichou, they're using Sonido," Shuuhei observed

"Aye," Komamura said. "Arrancar?"

"That many?" Shuuhei couldn't keep the shock out of his voice.

Komamura shook his head grimly, "It doesn't seem possible, does it? Maybe one is splitting these things off." He took a deep breath and roared. "Back to back! Back to back! Defend each other and cleanse them as you're able!"

The low cries of shock and dismay lessened, and folks moved into position for each other. The wet ground made footing treacherous. Quick, accurate thrusts caught the hopping Hollows just as they appeared. Shuuhei managed to skewer one through the body rather than cracking the mask. The thing wiggled on Kazeshini's blade, and both he and Komamura bent to look at it under its shell.

"A tick," Shuuhei shuddered. "That's what it looks like. No wonder it can jump so high."

"That does not bode well if they manage to fasten onto someone," Komamura said ominously.

There was a scream out in the trees. Both of them ran toward it, slashing jumping Hollows out of the air, and came to find a man writhing in the mud, covered with four of the things. They were distending, drinking from him as he screamed and visibly shrank under his skin. Shuuhei and Komamura moved as one, skewering the sucking Hollows. Blood burst everywhere, and Shuuhei cursed as the man died even as the Hollows burst to dust.

"They know to target someone fallen," Komamura observed. "Either they are intelligent or they have something guiding them."

Wolf and man looked at each other and nodded.

"That is what Yamamoto-soutaishou wished for us to take care of, I believe." Komamura intoned.

"Aye. And for our Division's sake, the sooner the better. Can you sense it in this?"

"If you would watch my back..." Komamura closed his eyes before he had even finished the sentence, and Shuuhei resolutely stood and watched the Captain closely. Whenever Hollows appeared, Shuuhei struck and struck again, glad of all his practice with just the sword so that every swing was accurate.

"That way," Komamura opened his eyes and pointed to their right. "It reeks in that direction."

"Let me tell our Firsts what the plan is, they can hold here."

"Aye."

Shuuhei used shunpo to find his First, and barely dodged a blade when he appeared a little too close.

"Good reflexes," he said noncommittally as she cringed. "First. The Captain and I are going in for the kill on the one controlling these things. We're hoping their intelligence will fail with the fall of their leader. So we need you to coordinate holding these things off until we get back."

"Aye, Hisagi-fukitaichou."

"Where's the 7th's First?"

She pointed him in the direction, he sketched a salute, and shunpo'ed away. This time he didn't appear quite so closely and took out four more of the hopping things before getting a little time to tell Komamura's First Seated officer the same news and plan. The man straightened and nodded. "Good hunting."

Shuuhei grinned and clapped him on the back. "Thanks."

He used shunpo back to Komamura's side and the two of them loped into the woods. The big Captain slipped through without the slightest of sounds. While Shuuhei moved as quietly as he was able, branches still broke and leaves still whispered.

At first, Shuuhei thought that the mist had just thickened. Then he realized that the whiteness wasn't moving at all. It blanketed the trees, hanging in swathes from the branches, covering the ground in dirty white. The mist clung to it, shining where it gathered in droplets.

Then he saw a lump in the webbing nearly as large as he was, Shuuhei strode forward and touched Kazeshimi's tip to the silk. The steel slid through the sticky silk, parting it cleanly, and dried bones clacked as they fell out. He hopped back, cursing, and slid on the slick ground. Just as he was about to lose his balance, a big hand wrapped about his upper arm and hauled him upright.

"Quiet," Komamura demanded in a low voice.

Shuuhei quieted. There was clicking. A lot of it, coming right at them, and it sounded odd, almost... meaty.

When the giant spider with a mask for a face crested the edge of the webbing, Shuuhei realized that it was the joints of the spider, the hard shell clicking as the joint moved, hitting with a thunk of the solid muscle underneath it. Acrid and hungry reiatsu flooded from the creature making him nearly dizzy. He snarled softly, held Kazeshini at the ready, but that big hand didn't unwrap from around his arm. He looked over to Komamura.

"Don't move," he breathed.

Shuuhei froze.

The huge spider creature hesitated. The webbing drifted in a breeze. Another bone tipped from the opening Shuuhei had made, and slid across the pile on the ground. The huge creature flashed toward the motion, and then tipped its head side to side as it studied the bone. The spider's body tilted up, tiny arms moving before the tendrils from its mouth, and it gradually turned toward them before tilting its head and multifaceted eyes in their direction. Shuuhei felt the hand on his arm tense.

The creature's intent flashed high and hard. Shuuhei used a shunpo step straight up, onto a branch ten feet above him as Komamura roared and brought his zanpakutou down on the head of the giant spider. With uncanny speed the thing _ducked _to the side, and the blade crunched down on one chitinous shoulder, where the shell was thicker. Still Tenken managed to crack and bend that armor. The spider screamed in pain as it swung a scythe-like front leg at the Captain, cutting him across the torso.

Shuuhei growled, "Reap, Kazeshini!" He swung the right blade on its chain in an arc and loosed the chain so that it flew and hooked the more fragile joint. He pulled, hard and heard a satisfying snapping crunch along with another enraged scream.

Komamura was able to block a strike from the spider's other leg, and Shuuhei caught it with his blades, allowing Komamura to get a solid, two-handed strike on the spider's mask. It gave one shrill, piercing whistle before it blew away to dust.

That was when the flood of giant spiders arrived. Shuuhei groaned, it made sense, he should have thought that it would have taken at least this many to cover so much of the woods with webs.

Komamura roared, "Bankai! Kokujou Tengen Myō'ō."

Tengen rose behind Komamura and with a slash of his giant sword, sliced through the front line of spiders, scattering them to dust.

Hundreds of spiders swarmed the giant robot form. Shuuhei had a hard time just staying out of the way. Tengen smashed dozens with each swing, dealing with them like the bugs they were. Shuuhei saw one climb up the giant's armor and disappear through the chinks at the giant's neck. Suddenly both the giant and Komamura roared.

Then to Shuuhei's horror, they both fell. Hard. The robot's huge body smashed the majority of the spiders remaining, but there were still plenty of them to be very dangerous to Shuuhei, and he suspected that there was something else still driving them. He hesitated, and then suddenly saw grey fur flash against the white webbing. Three wolves took down a spider and one of them _looked _at him expectantly.

It was the giant she-wolf from the house, her mate at her shoulder. Shuuhei used one of Kazeshini's blades to pierce the mask. The wolves moved further into the web-covered forest. He followed, striking as usefully as he could when the wolves had disabled or fought the few remaining spiders to a stand-still.

The she-wolf moved with purpose, but waited for him whenever he paused to assist her pack mates.

When he saw the cave mouth Shuuhei stopped for a moment, wondering what it was he was getting into. The she-wolf looked at him, tongue lolling as she panted, and then trotted into the darkness.

He slipped in after her. The darkness was complete, and he bumped into warm fur that waited there patiently until he unwound one hand from Kazeshini's grips, transferred it so that both were in one hand, and fumbled with his free hand to grasp the scruff of the wolf's neck. She was warm and nearly as tall as his waist, and with the softest of whines, she pulled him forward, her body guiding his as they went through caverns that echoed every sound they made until they came to some space that was so huge he heard nothing coming back to him. He took a shaking breath and heard clicking of the toenails of dozens of other wolves on the stone behind him.

When saw a low glow ahead of them, his light-starved eyes were so hungry for light, the faint light seemed like a beacon.

Then he wasn't sure he wanted to see what he was seeing. There were people-sized bundles all along the edges of a smaller alcove in the side of the huge cavern, and they were all covered with a mass of that glowing material. In the far corner was a pool of darkness that smelled of Hollow, of the same kind of reiatsu as the giant spiders outside, but it was as much bigger than they were as they had been to the little ticks.

Shuuhei bowed over Kazeshini, who cackled in Shuuhei's mind. _This will be a killing worth doing, hey, Shuuhei? We won't have to hold anything back, will we?_

Shuuhei frowned, shifting his grips so that he hefted one blade in each hand again, the chains slid against stone._ For once, we actually agree._

Kazeshini laughed.

They leaped in together, and the dozen lean gray shapes followed him in, snarling. It was a nightmare of flashing legs, tusks dripping poison, and the agonized yelps and crunches of the animals getting crushed or hurt. Shuuhei felt like he was trying to cut down one of those immense trees with nothing but a hatchet. Each of his hits seemed to be so feebly small against that mountain of Hollow, but with the wolves swirling about, their teeth slashing at thinner joints, and those fragile multi-facetted eyes, he could strike at will when he wasn't ducking one of the beam-like legs.

Hot breath and teeth closed on his wrist, and startled, Shuuhei pulled back for a moment, feeling some of his skin tear. The she-wolf growled, his blood dripping from her lips, and she pulled tugging him toward the spider's head.

"The mask, of course."

She let go. Shuuhei shunpo'ed. The flash step put him on one of the eyes, which he struck hard with his left blade. It stuck deep in the socket. His footing shook and reared, and he fought hard for his balance on the head of the spider. Then he took the grip of the right blade in both hands, and with all the strength of his body used it like a pick-axe to strike the Queen spider's mask.

Kazeshini howled in triumph in Shuuhei's head, as the tip of the blade pierced and shattered the mask. Then Shuuhei fell twelve feet to the rock floor of the cave, as the Hollow burst into dust.

Shuuhei awoke to a hot wet tongue lapping at his face. He put a hand up in defense of his face, and felt a long-nailed paw rake his side. "All right already. I'm awake. I'm awake..."

He tried to sit up and was so dizzy he went down again. He held his head in his hands a moment, and then felt around him and touched the katana blade of Kazeshini. Careful not to cut himself, he felt to the bound hilt, picked the sword up, and used it to help him get up, slowly this time. The warm fur of the wolf pressed up against his leg, and he limped over to the nearest glowing lump. He slid the edge through the webbing.

This time, instead of bones, out fell a man in tattered clothing, who cried out when he hit the stone and wildly tried to protect his head with his hands. "Don't kill me! Don't kill me!"

Kazeshini muttered in the back of Shuuhei's head _Aw... why not?_

Shuuhei growled softly, and the man whimpered in fear.

"What, you think I'm going to after nearly getting killed myself to save you?" Shuuhei barked. "Get up and help me free the others."

The man cowered, but finally opened his eyes, only to shriek again at seeing the wolves. "Don't eat me! Don't eat me!"

The she-wolf and Shuuhei shared disgusted looks, and they moved on to the next bundle.

Eventually they'd freed dozens of people, some of the bundles held dead bodies, but most were still alive. In the dying light from the growths, Shuuhei could see that most of them had two marks on their throat. So the poison didn't kill, it just stunned until the victim could be wrapped up. That made him breathe easier for Komamura-taichou. Most of them were more useful than the first man to Shuuhei's relief. Shuuhei asked them to pick up the injured wolves, and when he told them the role the animals had played in their rescue, everyone tried to help.

All the dead they left in the cave, saying the proper prayers for those that they could not name. Then they all linked themselves, hand to the waist of the person in front of them, and Shuuhei held on to the she-wolf to make the walk back out into the forest.

Komamura, shaking, wobbly but determined was waiting at the entrance. The sigh he gave at seeing the chain of people led by Shuuhei was heartfelt. When they all got down the hill, it was to find the outposts the Firsts had setup, and the medics just about done with the Divisions' injured. The medics were a little bemused about working on animals, but Shuuhei and Komamura himself offered their reiatsu to help in the healing. Other shinigami, curious and listening to those saved from the cave, came and offered their power as well.

Soon all the wolves were up and checked out nose to tail by their pack mates. The she-wolf came up to Shuuhei and play bowed to him. He bowed deeply back, and her tongue lolled out in what was unmistakably wolven humor.

"We are more than even, lady," Shuuhei said quietly. "If you have need of me, call on me again, for your pack paid a far higher price for ours than we did for yours."

Komamura chuckled as the she-wolf went up to Shuuhei and licked him under his chin before turning to bound away into the mists. "I think she accepts your offer, fukutaichou."

"I hope so," Shuuhei said quietly. "It wouldn't be fair, otherwise." He turned to the shinigami that were rapt in the exchange. "All right, pack up, it's time to pick up that other group and get ourselves home."

Their cheer made even Shuuhei smile. Just a bit.


End file.
